1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to prefabricated houses and, more specifically, to a modular, expandable prefabricated house.
2. Background Information
At least three issues are important to the prefabricated housing industry: transportation, ease of assembly, and customer choice. Presently, the market is currently broken down into several basic types of prefabricated houses. One of the largest types of prefabricated housing is modular housing. Modular housing is, typically, a two story house constructed in a factory and shipped onsite. Such houses are, typically, designed and constructed in a variety of layouts or models. These layouts, however, are only minimally adaptable by the customer. That is, while certain features, for example a closet, may be added or subtracted from a room, the general shape and layout of the house cannot be changed or adapted to the customer's preference. Such houses require substantial finish work on site involving all the trades, a foundation and significant construction time. Additionally, during transportation, modular housing requires wide load permits, state-to-state handoffs and special permits and costs.
Another form of prefabricated houses are manufactured housing, more commonly known as a double wide. A double wide generally includes components of a lower quality than modular houses and are almost always single story. A double wide, however, requires less interior finish but still requires a certain amount of finishing. The layout of a double wide is generally restricted to the prebuilt design and cannot be adapted by the customer. During transport, a double wide requires a wide load permit, state-to-state handoffs, and special permits and costs.
Similar to a double wide is trailer homes. Trailer homes are complete houses which require very little, if any finishing. The layout of a trailer house is generally restricted to the prebuilt design and cannot be adapted by the customer. Trailer homes are sized to be about 60 feet×9 feet×7 feet and may be transported without wide load permits. Trailer homes are, generally, inexpensive due to their physical dimension.
Yet another form of prefabricated housing is panelized construction. Panelized construction is where house panels are finished in a factory and transported to a building site. This method of construction is often viewed as a false economy because the finishing of the house, as opposed to the framing, is typically the most expensive part of construction. Although panelizing creates semi finished walls, it leaves the floor space, appliances and closets to be finished on site mitigating many of the savings.
There are also temporary offices, or site trailers, which are similar in dimension to a trailer house. Temporary offices are typically rendered in steel, and are simply a secure weatherproof location for storage, office and meeting areas as well as a communication receiver for telephone/fax and/or a computer network.
There are also temporary shelters made from a variety of very low cost products which can be static or folding in a variety of novel ways. Temporary shelters are best differentiated from houses by their lack of smart space, i.e., closets kitchens, bathroom or anything that requires floor space, as this does not lend itself to being packed flat. Such shelters are, almost without exception, single story.
There is, therefore, a need for a modular prefabricated house which may be adapted to a customer selected layout.
There is a further need for a modular prefabricated house which may be collapsed into one or more modules which may be transported without legal restrictions.
There is a further need for a modular prefabricated house that includes a plurality of multi-frame openings that may be adapted to a customer selected layout and which enable the modules to be coupled in more than one layout.